


the continuing search for hope

by pocky_slash



Category: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Fix-It, M/M, Old mutants in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-06 04:30:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1844467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocky_slash/pseuds/pocky_slash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the half-second between life and death, between Logan sleeping and waking, Charles and Erik get a glimpse of the timeline re-writing itself for the better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the continuing search for hope

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Вечный поиск надежды](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4733705) by [Lazurit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazurit/pseuds/Lazurit)



> I keep making myself sad thinking about how old!Charles and Erik of the original timeline will never get to know how happy they get to be together in the new timeline. So...I fixed it.

There's a split second between then and now, life and death, sleeping and waking, when he sees it.

The sentinel is opening its maw and Charles can feel the heat of its blast on his face. This is it, the end, unless Logan has changed things. He doesn't reach for Erik--the movement would take too long. Instead, he holds tight to their mental tether, to the strong psychic cable that's bound them together these last ten years.

_I love you,_ he thinks, because even here, at the end of it all, he has to say it. Even here, he needs his last thoughts to have purpose, drive, and for so long, in so many ways, this man was that purpose.

_At least we're together,_ Erik thinks. Charles closes his eyes. _At least I don't have to watch you die,_ he means, but Charles can't disagree. He can't pretend he hadn't been afraid, when Erik came staggering back inside with a hand clutched to his stomach, of the exact same thing.

The heat intensifies and he reaches out to the last of them, to Kitty, whose mind is screaming, and then to Logan, who--

And that's when he sees it.

It's a moment suspended in time, rolling outwards even as the sentinel could have killed them a dozen times over. It's fifty years compressed into endless seconds. It's Logan's life, but not as he's ever known it--Raven and a woman named Kayla. Victor Creed and the school in the eighties. Politicians Charles doesn't recognize, students he does, time zipping forward so fast he can barely catch up, so fast it takes him far too long to figure out what's happening. 

Logan did it. He did it. He rewrote the timeline. Charles is seeing the world's new history.

And not just the world's. And not just Charles. Erik is still inside Charles' head--he's seeing it all too.

_Charles_ , Erik thinks with wonder at a flash of Erik at the school, regal and authoritative in front of a classroom, laughing at something Jean has said, looking down his nose as Logan lights a cigar at the dinner table. _Charles,_ he repeats and Charles can't respond as he watches them kiss on their wedding day, Logan off to one side.

_He did it,_ Charles thinks, as time slows again, to Logan's present, to the last minutes before the timeline snaps into place. Logan is eating breakfast with Charles and Erik and some people Charles doesn't recognize. He says something and Erik laughs and leans over to kiss Charles' temple before getting up from the table. Logan says something and gestures after him and follows, walks down the hall and picks up a book and turns on the radio and time slows closer to normal, almost in real time as Logan sits on the edge of a futon.

They did it. Logan did it, he saved them, he gave them a future better than this.

_A future together,_ Erik says, full of more hope than Charles thinks he's ever heard from him. _Let's hope they make better choices than we did._ Then, _I love you too. I always have._

_In every timeline_ , Charles thinks, and he can't help but smile as the sentinel fires just as the timelines seem to merge into one.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] the continuing search for hope](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8870686) by [knight_tracer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight_tracer/pseuds/knight_tracer)




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